Iraqi villagers have accused units within the Iraqi government’s armed forces of abuses in the ongoing battle to take the city of Hawija, Human Rights Watch said today. Units of the Popular Mobilization Forces (known as the PMF or Hashd al-Sha'abi) affiliated with the Badr Organization detained and beat male villagers in a nearby village and took away four men without telling the men’s families where they were being taken or why, villagers told Human Rights Watch.

In 2016, the Iraq Humanitarian Pooled Fund (IHPF) became the second largest of all OCHA-managed country-based pooled funds (CBPF) globally. With generous contributions amounting to USD 102 million at a time when military operations to retake Fallujah and Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) saw an upsurge in humanitarian needs, the IHPF disbursed USD 88.3 million to 55 partners to implement 135 projects.